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Agencies in Washington County will respond to a major earthquake scenario as part of a state-wide disaster response exercise this week called “IronOR.” Participants in the exercise will include the Oregon Department of Emergency Management and multiple local agencies. Washington County will participate on October 29 and 30.
IronOR will simulate the fourth day of response and recovery operations after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake strikes along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a geologically active area just off the Pacific Northwest coastline. Geologists predict an earthquake of this magnitude is overdue in the region.
The functional exercise will help ensure emergency response partners are working together to provide decision makers with timely information needed to pursue the most important disaster-response priorities. The lessons learned from IronOR will be used to update large-scale earthquake response plans.
Exercise participants will focus on human services, including sheltering, public information, communications and inter-agency coordination.
“A Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake could cause severe shaking for several minutes, particularly in communities along the Oregon Coast and in the I-5 corridor,” said John Wheeler, manager of Washington County Emergency Management. “The IronOR exercise provides Washington County and other response and recovery partners with the opportunity to test our plans and coordinate our efforts. These exercises also remind us of how important it is for individuals and families to prepare and plan for emergencies and disasters.”
The Cascadia Subduction Zone is an area along the coastline of the Pacific Northwest where oceanic plates are colliding with the North American plate. The 700-mile-long zone extends from just off the Northern California coast northward toward Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. Geologists have learned that a devastating earthquake occurs roughly every 300 years when tension is released along these colliding plates of the earth’s crust. The last such event took place 324 years ago.
The devastation from such an earthquake would be severe and widespread, geologists warn. The magnitude of this quake could reach as high as 9.0. Shaking felt on the earth’s surface would be violent and would last 3 to 6 minutes. The quake would also trigger a tsunami that would cause destruction along the Pacific Northwest coastline and on coastlines across the Pacific. Aftershocks would be felt for several weeks following a subduction zone quake.
As government agencies work to improve coordination and decision making, experts in disaster response emphasize that families and individuals should also take steps toward better household preparedness. Because a subduction zone earthquake would occur without warning and cause power blackouts and other disruptions for weeks on end, each household is encouraged to gather enough emergency supplies to feed and hydrate each family member for two weeks, if not longer. Families should discuss ways to reconnect with one another after an earthquake hits, pre-designate locations to meet if their homes are no longer safe and make other arrangements.
More information about preparing for earthquakes and other natural disasters can be found at these web sites:
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Emergency Management
Contact
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Philip Bransford
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Communications Officer
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